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Monday, February 18, 2013

Space: 1999 Aftershock and Awe Review

Space: 1999

Aftershock and Awe

Comic Book Compilation

Review by Ken Parker

On September 13, 1999 an accident
caused an explosion which knocked the moon out of the Earth's orbit.
The people on Moonbase Alpha survived and went on to have many
harrowing adventures in deep space. What of Earth? Was it
devastated beyond all repair? Did anyone survive? Now in this comic
book continuation of the original Space: 1999 TV series we have our
answers.

Mild Spoilers

Archaia Entertainment has released a
hardcover copy compiling together their new Space: 1999 comic
collection. Space: 1999 “Aftershock and Awe” tells two
different tales about the eventful September 13, 1999 when the moon
was blasted out of Earth's orbit. Told from the perspective of the
men and women of Moonbase Alpha, “Awe” is a retelling of the
first episode of Space: 1999, “Breakaway.” Reprinting the
original Charlton comic but fleshing out the story with brand new
material, “Awe” really does a great job in capturing this first
tale. Added are segments that didn't make it into the final print of
“Breakaway” including more with outgoing Commander Gorski as well
as some additional connections with season 2 of Space: 1999 including
small parts for Tony Veredeschi and Shermeen Williams.

Space: 1999 was a very visual series
and the artwork in this book superbly copy the series. With
illustrators such as Gray Morrow, David Hueso and Miki, the book
really captures the excitement of the TV series. The story is told
fairly closely to the original but adds quite a bit of additional
tidbits to not only help link up some continuity for the series but
also some characterizations. It also sets up a new set of characters
that were left behind on Earth.

The Original Comic Magazine by Charlton

“Aftershock” follows several
characters on Earth. Each of them has some sort of connection with
Moonbase Alpha. One has a father on the base, another, a daughter.
Others were involved in a covert operation surrounding the moon's
resources for military purposes. When the moon was blown out of
Earth's orbit, destruction in the form of earthquakes, tidal waves
and debris killed thousands and we see this destruction first hand
from the point of views of these characters.

I liked this book an awful lot. I have
been critical of some of the things that Powys Media has done with
their continuation but for some reason Archaia has done a better job
with it. Both publishers have felt the need to clean up the
continuity of the series by explaining things. The original series
did not have a lot of continuity especially between the two seasons
where sweeping changes (including characters gone missing without
explanation) were made. For example, in “Awe” we are introduced
to Shermeen Williams. Shermeen first appeared in the show during its
second season. She was introduced as a character of 16 years old and
yet the amount of time the Moon had been traveling in space had been
close to 6 years and so that would make her 10 at the time of
“Breakaway”. The “Awe” story has an explanation of her being
on the base and what happens to her parents.

We also learn of other connections
including one Moonbase Alphan who has a 16 year old daughter but
doesn't know it. This daughter will no doubt become an important
character in future stories. We also have some political intrigue
with a secret cover-up surrounding a military plan that apparently is
destroyed with the accident on the moon. Interestingly this covert
group still has at least one agent on the moon when it went out of
orbit.

One of my criticisms of the Powys Media
books was taking characters that we all love and making decisions
with them that alter their characters too much. I felt both Maya and
Paul Morrow were among these changed characters in those novels. The
Archaia stories have yet to stray that far away from the series to
encounter these problems but we do see some minor changes like
Commander Koenig was recently engaged to be married right before the
moon leaves orbit and the previous mentioned character that is an
agent of the military plot.

The set up that these stories has
created is a planned series of stories that will continue to follow
the people of Earth who launch a rescue mission into outer space in
hopes of finding the moon. The idea states that this mission could
encounter planets and aliens that Alpha had encountered years
earlier. One suspects that we would learn more about the military
plot and other subplots introduced in this first couple of stories.

The comic series is available online
and in comic format but was recently released in a hardcover format
that is beautiful. The book is thick with lots of pages and for
$17.00 is definitely worth it. I am eagerly awaiting for this series to continue!!

Soon there will be a paperback
compilation reprinting the original comics from Charlton, Look-In and
the Annuals.

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